EntreMed Inc., a Rockville-based biotechnology company, announced yesterday that it plans a secondary common stock offering of 2 million shares to help pay for drug development. The underwriters also have the option to purchase an additional 300,000 shares to cover overallotments. The offering could raise as much as $120 million, based on yesterday's closing price of $59.875. That was down $6.375 from Wednesday. But that is not likely, according to Alan Auerbach, an analyst with First Security Van Kasper & Co. in Palm Beach, Fla. Noting that EntreMed's shares fell yesterday, Auerbach said that usually happens when a large amount of stock is placed on the market.

When Gail Folena-Wasserman joined Gaithersburg biotechnology startup MedImmune in 1991, she was its first employee in research and development, and dreamed of what the company might be "when it grew up. " Two decades later, the senior vice president for biopharmaceutical development is helping to test new drugs at a dramatically different MedImmune. Five years since a $15 billion acquisition by British pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca, the company is funneling a pipeline of potential therapies that has grown three times over and covers a wider spectrum of diseases.

Celera Genomics Group, the Rockville biotech that won international fame in the race to map the human genome with scientist J. Craig Venter at the helm, has again outlined plans to reinvent itself since those heady days in 2000. Celera, a division of Applera Corp. of Conn., said yesterday that it will abandon internal drug development efforts to focus on discovering proteins for use by other drugmakers and on creating products to diagnose diseases, an area of recent revenue growth for it. This will be Celera's fourth incarnation in its continuing quest for profitability.

Shares of Human Genome Sciences doubled in Thursday morning trading on news that a major British biopharmaceutical company offered to buy it for $2.6 billion, which the Rockville company rejected as too low. Human Genome, which uses the human DNA sequence to develop targeted drugs, said in a news statement that GlaxoSmithKline PLC offered to buy the company for $13 a share in cash. The company declined the offer, saying it did not "reflect the value inherent" in Human Genome, and added that it had begun exploring strategic alternatives, including a possible sale.

Shares of Human Genome Sciences doubled in Thursday morning trading on news that a major British biopharmaceutical company offered to buy it for $2.6 billion, which the Rockville company rejected as too low. Human Genome, which uses the human DNA sequence to develop targeted drugs, said in a news statement that GlaxoSmithKline PLC offered to buy the company for $13 a share in cash. The company declined the offer, saying it did not "reflect the value inherent" in Human Genome, and added that it had begun exploring strategic alternatives, including a possible sale.

Celsion Corp., a biotech firm that develops cancer drugs, said Monday that it will move its headquarters from Columbia to New Jersey by the end of September. The company said it has outgrown its current offices, where all but one of its 18 employees work, and intends to relocate to Lawrenceville, N.J., near Trenton. Officials want to move closer to New York financial markets and join the sizable community of companies and academics working on drug development and commercialization in New Jersey.

Hopkins vice provost named Yale deanJared Cohon, the Johns Hopkins University professor who some credit with helping to usher in a new era of cooperation between the university and the business community, will leave his post as vice provost for research Sept. 1 to become dean at the Yale University School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, one of the nation's best forestry schools."This is a really good opportunity," Dr. Cohon said. "It was the first school of forestry and has a place in the field."

Tuberculosis has been flying under the American radar for decades now, as it has lost its status as a top killer in the U.S. and a particular problem in Baltimore. But when an infected Atlanta man launched a public health panic last month, it raised the deadly disease's profile anew. There were about 14,000 TB cases in the country in 2005. But worldwide, particularly in the poorest regions of sub-Saharan Africa, there are 14 million people living with the deadly disease, which kills 2 million of them annually and is estimated to cost developing countries $12 billion a year.

Anyone who has ever tried to give a 5-year-old an antibiotic can appreciate where Edward M. Rudnic is coming from. As the founder of Advancis Pharmaceutical Corp. in Germantown, one of his goals is to take amoxicillin and convert it to a taste-free powder that could be sprinkled on anything - even ice cream - and tots would be none the wiser. His plans are not quite a reality yet, having run into a snag in clinical testing, but Rudnic hasn't stopped trying. And he is not alone. Ever since there were drugs, science has looked for ways to improve their delivery to better satisfy doctors and patients.

When Gail Folena-Wasserman joined Gaithersburg biotechnology startup MedImmune in 1991, she was its first employee in research and development, and dreamed of what the company might be "when it grew up. " Two decades later, the senior vice president for biopharmaceutical development is helping to test new drugs at a dramatically different MedImmune. Five years since a $15 billion acquisition by British pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca, the company is funneling a pipeline of potential therapies that has grown three times over and covers a wider spectrum of diseases.

Celsion Corp., a biotech firm that develops cancer drugs, said Monday that it will move its headquarters from Columbia to New Jersey by the end of September. The company said it has outgrown its current offices, where all but one of its 18 employees work, and intends to relocate to Lawrenceville, N.J., near Trenton. Officials want to move closer to New York financial markets and join the sizable community of companies and academics working on drug development and commercialization in New Jersey.

Tuberculosis has been flying under the American radar for decades now, as it has lost its status as a top killer in the U.S. and a particular problem in Baltimore. But when an infected Atlanta man launched a public health panic last month, it raised the deadly disease's profile anew. There were about 14,000 TB cases in the country in 2005. But worldwide, particularly in the poorest regions of sub-Saharan Africa, there are 14 million people living with the deadly disease, which kills 2 million of them annually and is estimated to cost developing countries $12 billion a year.

A pioneering Johns Hopkins neuroscientist has won the country's most lucrative biomedical research prize for work on cellular communication that helped revolutionize drug development. Dr. Solomon H. Snyder, who founded Johns Hopkins School of Medicine's neuroscience department, was one of three scientists awarded the Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research. The researchers, who all made groundbreaking discoveries on how cells communicate with their environment through molecular receptors, will split the $500,000 prize.

Anyone who has ever tried to give a 5-year-old an antibiotic can appreciate where Edward M. Rudnic is coming from. As the founder of Advancis Pharmaceutical Corp. in Germantown, one of his goals is to take amoxicillin and convert it to a taste-free powder that could be sprinkled on anything - even ice cream - and tots would be none the wiser. His plans are not quite a reality yet, having run into a snag in clinical testing, but Rudnic hasn't stopped trying. And he is not alone. Ever since there were drugs, science has looked for ways to improve their delivery to better satisfy doctors and patients.

Celera Genomics Group, the Rockville biotech that won international fame in the race to map the human genome with scientist J. Craig Venter at the helm, has again outlined plans to reinvent itself since those heady days in 2000. Celera, a division of Applera Corp. of Conn., said yesterday that it will abandon internal drug development efforts to focus on discovering proteins for use by other drugmakers and on creating products to diagnose diseases, an area of recent revenue growth for it. This will be Celera's fourth incarnation in its continuing quest for profitability.

By William Patalon III and William Patalon III,SUN STAFF | March 11, 2004

When the Frederick unit of research-and-engineering giant SAIC landed a federal contract to create a malaria vaccine using DNA technology, it tapped a Baltimore company to play a key role in the project. For SAIC, Cambrex Bio Science Baltimore Inc. represented a sound choice: The city-based company - among the best-known contract manufacturers serving the biotechnology sector - was able to make bulk batches of a prototype vaccine and had the in-house expertise to improve upon a previously designed production process.

By Douglas Birch and Liz Bowie and Douglas Birch and Liz Bowie,Staff Writers Staff writer Michael Dresser contributed to this story | June 15, 1993

A Columbia biotechnology company said yesterday that it has devised a way to make three-dimensional maps of the proteins produced by human cells that control all the basic functions of life -- an advance that could lead to the development of numerous new drugs.The company, Martek Biosciences Corp., has begun marketing a special food, or growth medium, called "Celtone M," that Martek officials say will permit researchers, for the first time, to draw up detailed blueprints for some of the thousands of very large human proteins whose complex structures have eluded them.

A pioneering Johns Hopkins neuroscientist has won the country's most lucrative biomedical research prize for work on cellular communication that helped revolutionize drug development. Dr. Solomon H. Snyder, who founded Johns Hopkins School of Medicine's neuroscience department, was one of three scientists awarded the Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research. The researchers, who all made groundbreaking discoveries on how cells communicate with their environment through molecular receptors, will split the $500,000 prize.

MOLECULAR biologists aren't generally a grumpy lot, but they are grumbling these days that corporate interests - particularly California-based Geron Corp. - may be stifling development of promising new anti-cancer drugs called telomerase inhibitors. Telomerase is a weird enzyme - part protein, part RNA. Its job is to restore a tiny bit of DNA at the ends of chromosomes. As normal cells divide over time, these tiny bits of DNA, called telomeres, get shorter until they virtually disappear.

EntreMed Inc. said yesterday that company founder and Chairman John Holaday had relinquished the title of chief executive officer, leaving the struggling company with neither a CEO nor a chief financial officer. The company also disclosed that it had been notified that Nasdaq was moving to delist its stock. The Rockville drug developer said it will appeal a determination by the Nasdaq staff that its common shares be removed from the Nasdaq National Market because its market capitalization - the value of its outstanding stock - has fallen to about $34 million, below the required $50 million minimum.